Knowledge of the location of a vehicle after it has been sold or rented is often desired. If the vehicle is financed by a loan for which the vehicle is collateral, the location of the vehicle should be known in case repossession becomes necessary. Traditionally, when repossession was necessary, lien holders or their representatives were forced to personally monitor the vehicle by venturing out to locate it. This method was inefficient and unreliable because the lien holder often had no reliable information about the vehicle's location, but rather relied on information provided by the buyer at the time of purchase. Additionally, due to the readily mobile nature of the collateral, obtaining an up-to-date and accurate location of the vehicle when a buyer was in default was difficult. In recent years, efforts have been made to simplify the task of tracking a vehicle for purposes of monitoring its location and for repossession. One such method that has drastically improved lien holder's ability to track vehicles is to equip the collateral (i.e. vehicle) with a mobile tracking device that can report the vehicle's location remotely.
However, as these tracking methods and devices have become more commonplace, a recurring problem has been that vehicle purchasers disable or remove them completely from the vehicle. The disabling and removal of the devices presents two problems for lien holders. Once the devices are disabled or removed, lien holders are again left with no information about the location of the vehicle. Furthermore, since the tracking devices are often integrated into the electrical system and connected to the body of the vehicle, the removal of the device by hasty or careless means often results in expensive damage to the device itself or to the vehicle.
What is needed, therefore, is an effective and inexpensive method of tracking vehicles while preventing the disablement or the removal of functional vehicle tracking devices from vehicles.